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Professional societies and ethics

For example, if we look for ethics in engineering profession in order to ascribe moral responsibility for engineers for any moral and technical lapse on their part, we will have to take a different stand than that of a Kantian ethicist who will look for de-contextuiual moral obligations: all moral wrongs are categorically wrong and the moral agent could be solely responsible for the lapses whatever. Here, the nature of agency comes into question. More than a sole moral agent, the professional is understood as a part of a system or a co actor along with others.

Scholars in the field of engineering ethics have long recognized the complexity of engineering practice. Indeed, the central issue of engineering ethics might, arguably, be said to be figuring out how engineers can and should responsibly manage this complexity. STS theory is helpful to engineering ethicists precisely because it provides ways to understand, conceptualized, and theorize this complexity. Framing the product and processes of engineering as sociotechnical systems makes visible the ways in which they are both combinations of technical and social components. As the complexities of engineering practice come into clearer focus by means of STS concepts and theories, there is better focus on the complexities of engineering practice and its diverse nature.

Focusing on two STS ideas – that of the co-production of technology and society and that of sociotechnical systems – and by showing that they have important implications for understanding the responsibilities of engineers, Deborah G. Johnson and Jameson M. Wetmore have come to a conclusion that although the analysis seems to point to a weaker account of the engineers insofar as it shows that many other actors are involve in the production of sociotechnical systems, it provides a picture of engineering practice in which engineers are seen to be doing more than designing neutral devices. Indeed, engineers are shown to be (with others) building the world in which we all live, a sociotechnical world. The analysis does more than merely deny the isolation of engineers; we use the STS co-production thesis and the notion of sociotechnical systems to develop a picture of the products and processes of engineering.

Their analysis suggests the importance of engineers as a team considering the ways in which their designs will influence values, politics, and relationships, while simultaneously recognizing, responding to, and helping shape the wide variety of actors that impact the design, use, and meaning of technology.

ESSENTIAL READINGS – Also can be found on Workshop webpage

Engineering Ethics

http://www.synbioproject.org/process/assets/files/6452/_draft/090420f9gv_lib_johnsongdandwetm.pdf